House Of Travel Collects NetGuide Award Again

House Of Travel Collects NetGuide Award Two Years Running

Last night at the NetGuide Web Awards, House of Travel's website was awarded the "Best Travel Site" sponsored by ACP Digital.

The category description rates houseoftravel.co.nz as "the best site providing an aspect of travel services and information. This may include online facilities for purchasing and an online travel guide".
House of Travel launched its booking website in October 2004 and now claims 20% of its annual transactions are currently done via houseoftravel.co.nz. House of Travel's eCommerce director Hilary Lewis predicts this figure would grow to 50% within five years.

"When we launched it was a world first at the time, it was a deliberate move by us to ensure we remained completely relevant to our customers. We must be wherever the customer wants us to be so whether that is in store, on the phone, via text or online, we need to be able to meet our customers' needs"

And the move appears to be paying off.

House of Travel's online business has seen an increase of 154% in sales in the past 12 months with around 80% of their customers being new to the chain.

"As word spreads of our site, the fact it lists all the airline options in an unbiased way and you allocate yourself to an outlet in case you need assistance, the traffic and conversion rates have escalated."

Lewis, says the Kiwi built technology by House of Travel's in-house IT team, picks up airfares which airlines display only on their website in addition to those that are provided on traditional airline systems.

"The technology is truly unique and does ensure consumers are getting all the options. If you go to an airlines site they are only ever going to show you their flights and with several different airlines flying the Tasman alone it's amazing the deals you can get. In fact close to 70% of our flights booked to Australia are over one airline and back on another."
Lewis said the award was public recognition that the site was user friendly and clearly filling a void for consumers the ability to view all the airlines on one website.

House of Travel has plans to expand and improve the site by adding additional features in the next six months.

House of Travel beat Air New Zealand and AA Travel to retain the title of "Best Travel Site for 2007". They have won the "Number One Travel Agency Site" in the Hitwise Awards since 2005.

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